#195: How to Drive More High-Quality Prospects to Your Website

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia. And this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. A quick reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com Episode 195. Those notes include a summary of our discussion as well as any links to resources that I might mention during the show. Today we're going to be talking about attraction marketing. So attraction marketing differs from outbound marketing or prospecting and then attraction marketing. You're trying to drive prospects to you. You're trying to get prospects to come to you. That's the theme of much of our editorial content that we're providing to you this month. And when you think about it, there are two main components to client attraction. Of course there's more to it than this, but essentially we're trying to meet people where they are and build breadcrumb trails from where they are to our website. Okay, so let's get them from where they are to our website where they can learn more about what we do and how we might be able to serve them. And then the second component is to convert as many of those website visitors into leads, into people who essentially raise their hand and indicate that they are interested in what you offer. Not necessarily an inquiry, but they have identified themselves as someone who's definitely interested. Because if you can get them your website, that's great. But if you can't convert them from a visitor to a self identified lead, then you don't know, you don't know who's been there. You have no way of knowing who's been at your website in terms of being able to contact them. Okay, so those are the two main components. Now today we're mainly going to be talking about how to drive that traffic to your website. So how to get people from where they are to your website and other content. Here. This month we're going to be talking a little bit more about the second part, but this is a big one because once you have a system set up and to be able to convert visitors, you need to be able to drive that traffic. And today I'm going to give you some very practical suggestions for how to do that. The way I'm going to give this to you is going to be kind of in order of priority, starting with low hanging fruit. So easier opportunities, things that won't take as much time and energy but will yield a good amount of return. And then we'll work our way into more difficult, challenging, time consuming ideas and strategies that work really, really well. But you're also going to have to invest quite a bit of time and energy and discipline in carrying them out. Okay, so let's get right to it and let's start with some low hanging fruit. Now with low hanging fruit stuff, I'm going to also include some strategies that are really about converting those visitors into leads. Okay. Just because these are things that look you should absolutely be doing these things if you're serious about having a client attraction strategy in place. And I'm going to start with items and assets on your website. So your sidebar opt in form if you have a lead magnet already. And if not, I would consider creating a lead magnet. Especially if you're an established writer or copywriter, you absolutely need to promote it on your website. The visitors are already there. Let's give them something attractive and relevant they can download in exchange for their contact information. So if you don't make it obvious on every page of your website, people aren't going to know about it and they're not going to opt in, they're not going to give you their information. So while they're there, let's give them opportunities to identify themselves. In order to do that, really the easiest thing is to have an opt in form on most of the pages, if not all pages of your website where they can request that information that's juicy relevant to what they do. That answers a question that they have it's information that they would love to have. Another great opportunity would be a resources page. So consider adding a resources page on your website and list at least two or three resources on there. And make sure to include your lead magnet. Again, if you already have one or if you don't already have one, this would be a great place to include it. Another good one, this one's not in your website, but it's one that's a no brainer is to have include a signature or call to action on your signature, I should say on your email signature block, include a call to action for your lead magnet in a direct link on that signature block that goes straight to a landing page or opt in page where people can download your lead magnet. Okay, so you're going to be an email all day long. You're going to be emailing prospects, you're going to be Emailing people might as well give them that call to action to go ahead and request that lead magnet from you. Okay, let's talk about social media. Okay, so we talked about website, your website talked about email. Let's talk about social media. Some great opportunities here that are a no brainer would be contributing to LinkedIn, Facebook and other groups. So participate in targeted Facebook groups and other groups that are relevant to your audience. Now LinkedIn groups aren't what they used to be, but there's still some opportunities out there. Bottom line is wherever your audience is hanging out, okay, they could be private groups somewhere else. Private slack groups, whatever. Just try to find out where they are and contribute ideas, informations and answers to those discussions. Also I would put a link in your Twitter bio for to your lead magnet. Opt in page where people can request your lead magnet. This is, you know, just a great easy place that people are going to see come across you and they're going to read a little bit about you there on your bio mod as well. Give them that call to action. Hey, check out my free, you know, tip sheet on and then give them a title at and then give them the link or the URL. Okay, this is a really, really easy definitely falls into the low hanging fruit category. You could also put a Link in your LinkedIn profile description, something to the effect of hey, grab a copy of my new cheat sheet and then the title here and indicate the URL where they can download it. That's another really easy win. Also adding your lead magnet to your LinkedIn publication section. So LinkedIn has added a section where you can list publications that items that you've published, books, reports, et cetera. So this is a great opportunity to go ahead and list that. It's not that everyone's going to be looking at it, but if somebody's checking you out, might as well go ahead and announce it. And at least right now as I'm recording this, you can find that section on the right side of your profile. Just click Add new profile section to get it a dropdown menu and you'll find publications listed under Accomplishments at least. Again, you know LinkedIn is always changing that. If you don't find it there, you can easily just do a quick Google search to see where to find it and you'll be able to find a help page on LinkedIn that will direct you to it. I would also create header shots of your lead magnet cover. Again just kind of continuing with a mix here. But this is low hanging fruit and this is all about okay, how do we get people to your site? And then how do we get them to turn from visitor to lead? If you create header shots of your lead magnet cover, that's going to make it more tangible, attractive and noticeable. So consider using these on LinkedIn. Use them on Twitter. Social media. Experiment with creating a 3D image or embedding the image in a picture of an iPad or a phone or computer. There are some great tools out there, such as placeit.net that enable you to do that very easily. It looks really slick. I would also add the lead magnet cover image to your Facebook business page header. So if you have a business page on Facebook or if you have a personal profile page, that is a great opportunity. Very noticeable area of your page where you can just call it out and make people aware that you have it and where they can get it. Of course, it goes without saying, you should always promote your lead magnet on social media. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever your audience is hanging out, promote it on a regular basis, not every day, but two to three times per week to start when you first publish it. And then you can bring it down once per month or something like that, maybe twice a month. You just got to kind of tone it down after you've launched it, make it a pinned tweet. So on Twitter you can make a post about your lead magnet, your pinned tweet. This is kind of like the one that always stays on top. And by pinning it, it's going to be the first thing prospects notice when they first come across your Twitter profile. One of the things that we also do here in my coaching business is we create and share images for quotables. So what we do is we splinter off what we call notable and quotable items from my content, whether it's an article or a podcast. These are essentially catchy phrases or tips that are contained inside that content. And we go ahead and create a nice image and canva for that. You can do the same thing from your lead magnet. So you just pull out, splinter off these quotes, stats, whatever they might be that are interesting by themselves, and then just combine them with an image on canva and use them for your social media updates. It's super easy to do and it definitely gets a lot more attention than just kind of a straight promotion of your lead magnet on social media. All right, so those are some easy things. These are things that, man, you should be able to do all those things quickly. They're going to make a difference. Not one thing is going to pay off necessarily. It's a combination of all these things, but the reason you should do them is that they're super easy to do. So it's, you know, why not, right? Let's just get these things done and out there. Once you've exhausted these, once you've done all these things, you can then start leveraging other people's properties. Opp. So I call them other people's properties because notice that other than social media, which is obviously a third party platform, these are going to be places you're going to have to see if there's a way for you to publish your content there. So again, you can meet your prospects where they are, and then build a breadcrumb trail from there to your website. So I've learned a lot of what I've shared with you from some of my colleagues, specifically kai davis@kaidavis.com on how to find these properties. And what I'm going to do here is I'm going to share some very specific ideas and this is the process that I follow. But don't feel you have to do every single one of these things. Now that we're getting into things that are going to be a little bit more time and resource intensive, the idea is not to do them all. The idea is to pick the ones that you think are going to be your best bets. And not only that, but just try to do only one or two at a time. Don't get overwhelmed with this. It'd be very, very easy to just try to do too much and then get overwhelmed and then just stop altogether. So the first idea, the first thing I do is identify where your audience congregates online and offline. So I've already mentioned that, but this is really about trying to figure out, okay, asking yourself, where are they? Do they read specific blogs or industry websites or publications? Do they listen to podcasts? If so, which ones do they attend meetups? Start putting together a small, concise list of the places where your audience congregates, both online and offline. Okay, that's something you're going to have to do some brainstorming on. You're going to have to start talking to people, get more ideas. It's not going to be an overnight thing, but start creating a master list. Don't worry about consolidating yet. You can do that later. Number two, survey your current and past clients. That leads me to what I just talked about. So it's, this is really about asking them, hey, what blogs or online or offline publications do you read? What podcasts do you listen to and use your responses to again, add to your list that you've already created of blog and podcasts and other publications that you might be able to reach out to. When you ask for this information, be specific. So don't just say what podcast, but what business related podcasts, what marketing related podcasts, what marketing or business publications do you read, what blogs do you read? You, of course, don't just want a list of NPR podcasts. You want to be able to know, hey, from when you're trying to learn more about your function, about what you do for a living, where do you go? Number three, search Google for communities that match the audience you're looking for. So for example, you could search for the audience's name and a combination with keywords. As an example, you could search for forum for business coaches or association for waterworks professionals. Okay, you're just playing around a little bit with Google. See what you can find in terms of online communities. By using some of the terminology that would describe the target market that you're going after, you can then refine your search for greater specificity. So for example, you could search something along the lines of water and wastewater Marketing association. Okay, get really specific there and see what you can find. I like to start with broad searches and then see where that takes me. And if there's a wealth of possibilities out there, then I'll get a little bit more specific because I can afford to do so. When you're doing this, also look for industry blogs, forums, associations and other industry groups. Okay, we're looking for all possibilities here. I'm not discriminating, I'm just trying to find out all the possibilities. I can pare this down later. You also want to identify Twitter list, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, community sites, all possibilities in terms of where your audience, where your prospects might be hanging out. Usually you're going to want to find niche communities in your target market, but sometimes it makes sense to go for a wider audience. So for instance, Forbes or Citrix magazine and that sort of thing. So getting published in larger publications, because that's essentially what we're trying to do, right? We're trying to identify these publications that, where your prospects are hanging out, the publications that they're reading so you can publish great content there, get your content placed and then have a breadcrumb trail from there to your website. Breadcrumb trail in the way of in your bio saying, you know, here's who Ed Gandia is, this is what he does, here's whom he serves for a free cheat sheet. Titled blah blah, blah, blah blah. Visit website. Right? That is the call to action that creates the breadcrumb trail. And what you want is a combination. Of course, niche publications are great, but sometimes these wider, bigger publications, if you can get on even one of them, would be fantastic because it gives you that street cred that's helpful when approaching the niche publications. So these things tend to work in concert. Sometimes it's harder to get into some of the niche publications, but having the street cred, hey, I've been publishing Forbes. Then that does help get acceptance and get a yes. Number four, this one I really love and this one I definitely got from Kai, from Kai Davis. Stalk your colleagues. So draft a list of colleagues and competitors, including agencies and marketing firms in your industry who target the same market. And use custom Google searches to find the podcast and the websites and the publications they've appeared on or with a published content. And then pitch those same podcasts, publications and sites with content ideas or article ideas. Okay, so certainly find out where your competitors are going, where they're getting published, and then that tells you a lot, that helps you kind of narrow the field and then pitch those publications. Number five, determine which places align best with your abilities. So here's what I mean. If you're an excellent writer but dislikes speaking, then focus on opportunities to contribute articles, not interviews. Okay. If you really like to get your information out there by talking, you know about your ideas and your strategies, podcasts might be better for you. So if you really like to get out to industry conferences, then speaking might be better. And if speaking terrifies you, couple of ideas. One is consider starting with a panel discussion. Volunteer for to be a panelist. Many times, you know, that's just an easier way. You don't have to prepare as much easier way to kind of get into the speaking game, number one. Number two, challenge yourself. I think speaking is a great opportunity to grow personally and professionally. And if you that the idea terrifies you, you know what, that's a good sign that speaking is outside of your comfort zone. And that might be something you're going to want to do. Develop that skill. So don't immediately write it off, but definitely start with where you're most comfortable and then work your way out to other formats that are not as comfortable for you. Number six, study the audience. So as you find these publications and you start looking at what's being published and what the conversations are and what they're about and what people are saying, ask yourself, how do these people self identify? Like how are they describing themselves? What questions are they asking? What problems do they seem to have a lot of? Which resources are getting the most shares and likes? Which ones seem to be getting a lot of traction? Right? That's going to tell you a lot. Not only is it going to help you get inside their head, it's also going to help you understand which topics or ideas you should pitch to these publications, because you're going to have a finger on the pulse of what's really resonating with that audience. Number seven, build relationships with the property owner. Property owner being, you know, the editor, the owner of that blog, or the host of that podcast, whoever the main person is who would make a decision as to whether or not they would bring you in as a contributor or as a guest. So you want to contribute to forums and groups and you want to email them to let them know you have been consuming their content, that you understand what they're doing, that you have a good handle on their message, and that you liked a certain article or episode of the podcast or whatever it might be and why you liked it. So let them know that before you even ask for an opportunity to be a guest or to contribute content, start developing a relationship with a property owner. Not in a stocky kind of way, not in a, you know, a very deliberate way that makes the other person know that what you want is to pitch. Just be a normal person and be sincere in your compliments and let them know how much you appreciated whatever you've come across or whatever they're doing. And don't ask for anything in return, at least not yet. And then number eight, when the time comes, when you have really immersed yourself in that publication, in that blog, in that podcast, in that organization, in that forum, in that group, once you have a really good feel for what's going on in there, then go ahead and make your approach. Then and only then. So again, I hope this laundry list of ideas gave you some inspiration and some ideas on how you could approach this strategy. If this is something that you're trying to develop, this client attraction system, or if you're already doing some of this, if you already have a lead magnet, for instance, hopefully I've given you some fodder, some ideas for how you could drive more traffic to your website so you have more people requesting your lead magnet. Again, start with the low hanging fruit, start with the easy things and then work your way up to the ones that require more time, energy, focus and a longer term view. I hope you found this helpful. This has been Ed Gandia Have a wonderful rest of the day. Take care. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher.com sa.